The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
.ePUB, 217 pages
Expected Publication: 03 Jan 2023
By: St. Martin's Press

About The Book:
As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend. Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album––and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder. As Emily digs into the villa’s complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce’s murder wasn’t just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred––and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind. Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge––and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.

My Review:
This is my first book by this popular author. I am so pleased that I can say I see what the fuss is about and that I got it from NetGalley. I love books with a gothic feel to them and The Villa certainly has that, this one blends it with a bit of historical backstory, not to mention the Italian villa setting...which is a bucket list destination for me. The book was also very suspenseful and really creepy at times, I read this last night after a night shift at work and it made me scared of the dark! It is a fairly short book at just 217 pages on my tablet so I was able to read it in a single sitting. I think that the shortness of the book helped ramp up the tension and made the book hard to put down. I love a good dual timeline story and I'm not gonna lie, the mystery/reveal surprised me...I had no idea where it was going. I am going to have to add some of this author's backlog to my ever-growing to-read pile and that is the biggest compliment I can give. 

Disclosure:
Many thanks to NetGalley, Rachel Hawkins, and St. Martin's Press for the giving of the ARC.

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